Publications

June 2011 (Revised January 2013)
Case

Oddo Securities―ESG Integration

By: Paul M. Healy

The case describes the process of integrating environmental, social, and governance issues into valuation models and research analyst recommendations. View Details

Keywords: Financial Strategy; Mathematical Methods; Integration; Valuation; Environmental Sustainability; Social Issues; Governance Controls; Investment

December 2020 (Revised April 2021)
Case

IBM Watson at MD Anderson Cancer Center

By: Shane Greenstein, Mel Martin and Sarkis Agaian

After discovering that their cancer diagnostic tool, designed to leverage the cloud computing power of IBM Watson, needed greater integration into the clinical processes at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, the development team had difficult choices to make. The Oncology... View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Innovation Strategy; Knowledge Management; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Operations; Failure; Information Technology; Applications and Software; Health Care and Treatment; Product Development; Health Industry; Information Technology Industry; Technology Industry; United States; Houston; Texas

05 May 2003
Research & Ideas

How Bank of America Turned Branches into Service-Development Laboratories

Companies often use rigorous R&D processes to guide new product development, but are much less scientific when it comes to creating services. Not Bank of America, which has turned Atlanta-area branches into consumer laboratories.... View Details

Keywords: by Stefan Thomke; Banking; Financial Services

November 1990 (Revised May 1994)
Case

Microsoft Corp.: Office Business Unit

By: Marco Iansiti

Describes the development of a new word processing software package, Word for Windows. The major focus is how the development process should be improved to reduce schedule slips and cost overruns. Some of the issues raised are: the use of schedules in managing... View Details

Keywords: Communication Strategy; Cost Management; Business or Company Management; Time Management; Product Development; Programs; Projects; Information Infrastructure; Applications and Software; Information Technology Industry

January 2021
Case

Bespoken Spirits: Disrupting Distilling

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Daniel Fisher

On October 7, 2020, Bespoken Spirits publicly announced it had received $2.6 million of seed funding for its “sustainable maturation process,” a process that could produce award-winning whiskeys in just days rather than years using a novel technology and data science. ... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Business Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Disruption; Entrepreneurship; Environmental Sustainability; Cash Flow; Disruptive Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Brands and Branding; Business Model; Consumer Products Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Service Industry; United States; California

Most executives think of decision making as a singular event that occurs at a particular point in time. In reality, though, decision making is a process fraught with power plays, politics, personal nuances, and institutional history. Leaders who recognize this make... View Details

February 2012
Case

Kent Chemical: Organizing for International Growth

By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Laura Winig

In July 2008, Luis Morales, president of Kent Chemical International, is proposing a third reorganization effort after two failed attempts to better align his business with its U.S.-based parent company. With a global expansion strategy placing increasing demands on... View Details

Keywords: International Business; Organizational Change; Multinational Corporations; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Multinational Firms and Management; Organizational Design; Management Practices and Processes; Organizational Structure; Corporate Strategy; Organizational Culture; Global Strategy; Chemical Industry; United States

Article

Meaning and Momentum in the Integrated Reporting Movement

By: Robert G. Eccles, Michael P. Krzus and Sydney Ribot

In this summary of their recently published book, the authors provide an update of the state of the integrated reporting (or ) movement, whose aim is to persuade companies to provide fuller disclosure of material nonfinancial (or "ESG") factors and how they are... View Details

Keywords: Integrated Reporting; Integrated Corporate Reporting

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April 1986 (Revised May 1988)
Case

Sun Microsystems, Inc. (B)

By: Kim B. Clark

Dissects the manufacturing process and procedures of a high-end computer manufacturer. The main issue is how to introduce new products and ramp them up quickly in a competitive environment where time-to-market is crucial. Focuses on engineering change orders--how they... View Details

Keywords: Factories, Labs, and Plants; Time Management; Product Launch; Production; Business Processes; Competitive Strategy; Computer Industry

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February 1999 (Revised October 1999)
Case

Cherkizovsky Group (A), The

By: Lynn S. Paine and Hal Hogan

Describes the transformation of a formerly state-owned meat processing plant in Russia into a privately-owned and operated food processing conglomerate under Russia's economic reforms of the 1990s. Among the challenges the CEO, Igor Babaev, and his top management team... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Privatization; Transformation; Global Strategy; Culture; Food and Beverage Industry; Russia

February 2006 (Revised November 2012)
Case

Corporate Responsibility & Community Engagement at the Tintaya Copper Mine (A)

By: V. Kasturi Rangan, Brooke Barton and Ezequiel Reficco

Located in the highlands of Peru, the Tintaya copper mine has long been a source of intense conflict between local community members and mine operators. The mine, which was owned and managed first by the Peruvian state and later by BHP Billiton, stands on 2,300... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Multinational Firms and Management; Agreements and Arrangements; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Business and Community Relations; Non-Governmental Organizations; Conflict Management; Mining Industry; Australia; Peru

October 2009
Case

Low-k Dielectrics at IBM

By: Willy C. Shih and Giovanni Carraro

Innovations at the frontiers of technology carry enormous risk of making wrong choices. This case examines a decision made by IBM in its semiconductor process technology strategy: a material to use as a dielectric insulator in its leading edge silicon chip technology.... View Details

Keywords: Competency and Skills; Decision Choices and Conditions; Technological Innovation; Product Development; Science; Creativity; Semiconductor Industry; United States

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January 2024
Background Note

Making Strategic Choices

By: Jan W. Rivkin

This note lays out a process that students and business leaders can follow to make well-integrated sets of strategic choices. View Details

Keywords: Decision Choices and Conditions; Strategy

August 2015 (Revised March 2017)
Case

Planters Nuts

By: Robert J. Dolan and Donald K. Ngwe

In 2012 Planters had about $1 billion in U.S. annual revenues, but had experienced declining unit sales and household penetration over the past six years. The snack nuts category was growing overall, but household spending was shifting away from peanuts, cashews, and... View Details

Keywords: Product Marketing; Product Positioning; Marketing Strategy; Food and Beverage Industry

2022
Chapter

State-Formation, Statist Islam, and Regime Instability: Evidence from Turkey

By: Kristin Fabbe

Religion, and particularly the forces of political Islam and state secularism, have been central to discussions of regime stability in the Turkish case. Intense polarization, political instability, and military interventions have propelled Turkey into crisis about once... View Details

Keywords: Ottoman Empire; Regime; State Secularism; Political Islam; Democracy; Autocracy; Religion; Government and Politics; Turkey

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15 Jan 2018
Research & Ideas

A Better Business Model for Fighting Cancer

drugs,” says Giusti. Working with leaders at direct-to-consumer enterprises and five leading cancer organizations, they drew on the experience of businesses including Keurig, Peloton, and Rent the Runway to develop more effective View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Health; Pharmaceutical

August 2002
Background Note

Customer Benefit Stack

By: Das Narayandas

Describes a process to understand customer benefits created in industrial markets using the metaphor of a customer benefit stack. View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Customer Value and Value Chain; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Manufacturing Industry

March 2020 (Revised February 2023)
Case

Performance Management at Afreximbank (A)

By: Robert S. Kaplan, Siko Sikochi and Josh Steimle

Based in Cairo, Afreximbank was founded in October 1993 as a specialized continental financial institution designed to address the low level of intra-African trade, the decline in financial flows to Africa, the worsening external debt situation of many African... View Details

Keywords: Performance Management; Balanced Scorecard; Performance Expectations; Performance Evaluation; Performance Improvement; Organizational Culture; Strategy; Banking Industry; Africa; Egypt

January 2015
Teaching Plan

Residencial Los Andes

By: Nicolas P. Retsinas and Lisa Strope

In 2011, Mauricio Levitin and Josef Preschel, Managing Directors of Peninsula Investments Group (Peninsula) are deciding whether or not to recapitalize an equity investment in Residencial Los Andes, a residential development project in Santiago, Chile, or exit and take... View Details

Keywords: Real Estate; Property; Real Estate Industry; Chile